the forcible abduction or stealing away of man, woman, or child, from their own country, and sending them into another. This crime was capital by the Jewish law. "He that stealeth a man and selleth him, or if he be found in his hand, shall surely be put to death." (Exod. xxi. 16.) So likewise, in the civil law, the offence of spiriting away and stealing men and children, which was called plagium, and the offenders plagiarii, was punished with death.